BrokersNYC, the service that we operate for independent real estate brokers in New York, won a major victory recently. We settled a long-running lawsuit against the Real Estate Board of New York and some of the biggest brokerage firms in New York.

A little history: The Real Estate Board (aka REBNY), a trade association that is controlled by the big brokerage firms, started a residential listing service a few years ago. These exclusive listings come from REBNY members, and their distribution is tightly controlled. The independent brokers who subscribe to our BrokersNYC service would have to pay through the nose to access them in any readily usable form. When we asked REBNY if we could disseminate the listings to our members through the BrokersNYC website, REBNY refused.

We filed an antitrust suit in 2004, saying it was anticompetitive to prevent services like BrokersNYC from distributing these listings to independent brokers at an affordable price. (And of course, the lack of competition doesn’t just hurt BrokersNYC and the independent brokers; it hurts consumers, too.)

Our lawsuit asked that REBNY be required to deal with any listings information service that, like BrokersNYC, operates on behalf of REBNY members, and to integrate directly with our software so that independent brokers could get a product equivalent to what the majors were getting. We also asked for at least $78 million in damages.

Last August, a judge threw out REBNY’s motion to dismiss the case. In January, we met with Magistrate Judge Dollinger and agreed to settle, and the settlement went into effect recently. While we didn’t get everything we asked for (that’s the point of a settlement), BrokersNYC is now free to compete on an equal footing with its competitors that service the brokerage community – and our clients, and ultimately the consumers, will get a better deal. We’re looking forward to rolling out new features for BrokersNYC very soon.

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Over the past several years, many researchers and public interest groups have critiqued real estate brokerage practices. David Barry’s Nine Pillars of the Citadel is one of the first Reports to offer concrete advice for actual reform.

In his Report, Barry accuses the National Association of Realtors of fixing prices and restraining trade. These actions result in increased transaction prices for consumers.

In this Report to the Federal Trade Association, Barry calls upon Congress to establish a national Multiple Listing Service and for the Department of Justice to criminally prosecute NAR for price fixing.

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By Jessica Swesey, Inman News
The U.S. Justice Department today filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors challenging its new policy for online property listings display.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has been investigating the Realtor trade group’s policies for Internet listings over whether it has been restricting competition among real estate brokers.
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